But after only one Toyota finished in the top 14 on Sunday, there were many glum faces among the manufacturer's teams. Denny Hamlin and Matt Kenseth told USA TODAY Sports they were disappointed in the performance.

"Even though this is the latest and greatest (engine package), it's not as good as what we had at the beginning of the year, in my opinion," Hamlin said after finishing 20th. "I definitely think the Toyotas are not what they were."

"We all, as a group, ran really, really slow today," said Kenseth, who finished 15th. "We've got to get our cars better, they've got to get the motors better and hopefully, we'll be stronger the next few weeks."

Wilson, speaking by phone on Monday afternoon, said there was no cause for panic despite disappointment in the overall results.

"We're not lost," he said. "We're hanging in there. We have some clear direction."

That direction includes a plan geared more toward the Chase for the Sprint Cup races — the final 10 events of the season — than the races leading up to it.

"As much as we would have loved to have won (at Michigan), it's more important we dial our cars and our package for those 10 races," Wilson said, noting three Toyota drivers are solidly in the Chase and another is on the bubble. "The good news is we've got these next three weeks to focus on the Chase, and that's what this is really about."

Wilson acknowledged the Joe Gibbs Racing drivers were unhappy but said he received positive feedback from Michael Waltrip about the engines' performance. Michael Waltrip Racing's Clint Bowyer finished fifth and Mark Martin almost won before running out of gas.

Dave Rogers, crew chief for Kyle Busch, said he missed the setup on JGR's No. 18 car so badly that it would be "irresponsible for me to comment on the motor at this point."

TRD had a handful of high-profile engine failures in the first half of the season, which led to a period of dialing back horsepower while working to make the engines last longer. But the mix of reliability and performance was supposed to be better by Michigan, and the results weren't there.

"Our car's setup was a little bit off, but in general I think we're behind," Hamlin said. "We had some reliability issues we've got to work through, so we're just trying to Band-Aid it at this point and get through."

Said Kenseth: "You've got to have reliability, but you've got to have performance, too, to be able to have a shot at it."

In the meantime, Kenseth said he'd rather see results than talk about it.

"They seem to put a lot of press releases out about motors and power and adjustments and stuff, but I don't really like to talk about that stuff," he said. "I like to talk about it at meetings and give my feedback.

"Hopefully we're working on the stuff instead of talking about it. I know they're always working hard on it."